Here's an interview printed in Aftenposten (August 26, 1995)

comments are between [] by Sabine in Belgium!



 A SINGER WHO CAN'T WRITE - A POET WHO CAN'T SING


Morten Harket had never composed music before.  Haavard Rem had never
written in English.  They've done so now.  The result is the double
debut album "Wild Seed".
The concerted action has left an impression on both.  
"We met for the first time one afternoon in the winter of 1992, at
Morten's brother's home", Haavard Rem remembers.
"Was I there ?", Morten Harket wonders.

The circumstances are most difficult.  Nevertheless, it turns out to
be not THAT hard to get the duo together.  Morten Harket is on the
way by car, from his grandmother in Soerland to the airport, to put
his wife and children on the plane to Stockholm.  He travels on to
London tomorrow.  He's available for half a night, with a guitar over
his shoulder and a mobile phone which doesn't work.  He phones from a
sausage stall next to the road and says it has to happen later, if
it's for an interview.
"Shall we meet between eight and eleven ?", he proposes.  He's never
been so precise.

Haavard Rem lies on the beach and phones.  He's got his wife and two
children with him, on a swimming trip from Arendal to Huk.  He
doesn't have anything to do, except for this concert in the course of
the evening.  On top of that, he believes it suits Morten best to
have the interview past midnight.  
"Morten thinks clearest during the night", Haavard concludes.
"No, it should happen now !", Morten calls a bit later.  It's a few
minutes past eleven.  Morten wants to talk to Haavard. 
"Haavard is in Huk", I say.
"But we had an appointment one hour ago !", Morten complains.
"Exactly..."

How can one ever believe these two, both grown-ups, have ever
succeeded in meeting long enough to work together on CD material ? 
One can indeed believe nothing gets a grip on Haavard Rem, a poet,
who's like thoughtfulness itself, a man of words, both in literature
and in life, who says about himself that he stops functioning without
his mobile phone.  He's almost like a popstar now.
Morten Harket has become his own master, taking care of his own solo
carreer, touchy about the time, but unapproachable by anything else. 
One could believe he was a poet.
It's hard to find a duo so unlike on the Ark : a poet who can't sing,
a singer who can't write.
"Morten has never read a book", Haavard says.
"Haavard has never recognized a melody", Morten teases.
Neither of the statements can be true.  Morten speaks like he's
prepared himself for a philosophy test.  Haavard hums at his phrases,
like they were put on music.  And yet, they were both right.  An
un-literary singer has found his writer.  A poet without a singing
voice has found his interpreter.
What is it all  about ?
"It's about Morten having written these fantastic lyrics to my
melodies", Haavard says ironically.
"Oh, so you started to compose ?", Morten asks, with a straight face.

But then they become serious, especially Morten, the frontman of
a-ha, who hasn't contributed the the band's lyrics nor the melodies. 
Could he be more than a singer ?  With regards to a possible solo
album, he's been hunting for material, subjects, but also looking for
himself.  Since childhood, he hadn't played any instrument.  He'd
never written nor read notes.  But the record company didn't ask
questions.  Warner Brothers in London had a pure pop contract with
him.  They wanted to have the hit phenomenon Morten, the young-girls'
idol from a decade ago, from an epoch he himself has grown away from.
Morten wanted something else.
"I was mature enough to become an adult", he says.  "The need for it
had been there for a long time.  The need to tighten the grip on what
I controled, and to loosen the grip on what controled me.  At first,
I recorded the album Warners wanted to have, it's there, finished and
all.  But I myself didn't want to have this one.  So I had to give
them something else.  Little by little, I gave them my own thing,
songs I'd written myself.  They seemed to think that was "cute" of
me.  But I didn't want to make a toothless sequel in a style of pop
music to which I can't fit my own taste.  I tried the best I could
on this  record, without faking anything, so that it could be my
insurance in some way, in case I had to follow the contract.
But I was certain that there was a challenge there for me, waiting at
some other place.  In order to survive, it was necessary for me that
the record company threw away the old in favour of the new, that they
changed their minds in my favour, not because I argued for something
they didn't want, but because my music convinced them."
"And what was Haavard's role in this ?"
"He appeared at the right time and was the fire I needed.  I knew I
needed someone to sharpen me, because I knew I had come to some
point.  By intuition, I also knew what I lacked to do what I wanted
to, and I knew I had powers in me, which only Haavard could get out,
and which would permit me to walk down that road.  That we have
managed it, together, has contributed to my identity as an artist",
Morten says.  
He had to learn to play a chord-instrument, on from the beginning, 
before he could start composing.
"It turned out to be the guitar.  I had those memories from
childhood, when I sat at the piano and invented new things.  But it
was completely broken down when I came at my teacher's place.  
[Now here comes a piece I don't get.  I know the words, but if I
translate it directly, it makes no sense to me.  So I guess it must
be interpreted some other way.  If someone in Norway could help me,
please ?
"Det var doedt i aatte aar, jeg lurte henne trill rundt, fordi jeg
husket hva hun hadde spilt."
Thanks a lot in advance !!]

Maybe it's like Haavard Rem says : "Morten's ego is so big that no
one can see it !"
The poet had hardly had the time to get to know Morten, when two
years ago, the latter went into the studio to sing some texts he'd
never read before, to some music he'd never heard before.  The
recording of "Poetenes Evangelium", based on Rem's choice of lyrics,
happened by the inspiration of the moment.  The succes of it wasn't
deafening, but afterwards on the plane to Israel, where they were
going to film a video, Morten met Haavard in a way that he can even
remember it.
[At the end of October 1993, two video's to the songs "Salome" and
"Natten" (from "Poetenes Evangelium") were made in Israel.  They were
shown in Norwegian cinema's, as short movies before the main movie.]
But it's Haavard who tells it.
"We got a good contact.  I gave Morten a fresh copy of my "Oevelser i
grensesetting" [something like "Exercises in drawing borders"], a
collection of poems with quite a religious and ideological approach.  
After we'd been to Jerusalem, I sent a few texts to Morten in 
England..."
"Some of them were quite unusual !", Morten interrupts.
"Yes, but that winter, we were at the Maledives, and on the plane
home, I wrote my first poem in English.  Two weeks later, the melody
to it was on my answering machine."
"What does this offer a poet?"
"Quite a lot.  Wergeland says a Norwegian poet is chained down by his
language like an eagle in a cage.  This has been the reason.  In your 
life, you get perhaps something like five or six ingenious moments, 
and some readers can go through them together with you, and suddenly 
these moments turn into a poem, your poem, which gets chosen for the 
international market, because you write in English for an artist.  I 
have published Leonard Cohen in Norwegian,and now I publish myself in 
English.  I like that."
"Because of the money ?
"Maybe, because money gives me the freedom to live from what I like
best : writing poems in empty hours.  There's something tragical
in the perspective Norwegian artists have.  They can't develop
artistically and survive on such a small market at the same time. 
Jahn Teigen could have developed his talent in a whole new direction,
out of the Norwegian surroundings, while Jan Garbarek could have come
to a stand as a musician, if he hadn't had his international public. 
Now in this case, Morten and I represent two different sides.  Morten
had accomplished a lot of superficial, outward things, without
realizing himself artistically.  I had done the opposite, barely
written my poetry, while nothing of it came to the open.  And so we
had a two-way exchange here', Rem says.

But how have they been working together ?
"We have criticized one another all the time", the composer asserts.
"I would say we sat there and smoothed things", the poet thinks.
"You know what it is with you ?", Morten says to Haavard.  "You have
such a smooth way to turn and change things and before one realizes
it, you've rejected all."
"That's because I work with my hands", Haavard answers.
"Yeah, but your quality is that you can give a masculin expression
for the feminin side we associate with poetry."
"And what is Morten Harket's quality ?"
"He could have been both Cliff Richard and Bob Dylan, [men ikke er
noen av delene i et uttrykk som allikevel er en slags blanding]",
Haavard Rem states.

And the composer takes his guitar, the poet his mobile phone, and
they go home in the night - each on his own.


There are two pictures; both showing Morten and Haavard Rem.  The
first one shows only their heads, they are lying on small stones
(maybe a beach), Morten has his eyes closed, Haavard's eyes are 
open.  Below the picture is the following : 
"WILD SEED" : Both have gone new ways.  Morten Harket has left the
pop-base and started to compose himself.  Haavard Rem has found a new
language for his poems - English.

The second picture shows the two in an arm wrestling pose.  They look
each other straight in the eyes.  It says : 
SHARPENED HIMSELF - "I knew I needed someone to sharpen me", Morten
Harket says.  Haavard Rem appeared at the right time and provided the
fire Harket had been looking for.

Both pictures are courtesy of Warner brothers.

There's also a corner with some more text :

"Wild Seed" gets launched.
Tonight, Morten Harket will perform at NRK's broadcast of Momarkedet,
and the album "Wild Seed" will get released on the fourth of
September.  The single "A kind of Christmas card" is out since a
couple of weeks, and it is solidly placed at the number one spot of
the Norwegian charts.  In England, things are more modest.  In the
coming weeks, a complete promo tour will get launched, with TV
appearances and radio and press interviews.  Right after Momarkedet
he goes to London, then to Mexico, back to London, then Germany,
followed by the rest of Europe.
If the album 'takes off' well, it is possible that out of the studio
musicians, a band for a live tour will be formed.


Greetings,

Sabine